Hollow – Home Is Not Where the Heart Is (Review)

Hollow are a metalcore band from the US and this is their debut album.

This is energetic and aggressive modern metal/metalcore with a strong sound and lots of attitude.

Performing the tried-and-true modern metal formula of mixing heavy, aggressive verses with melodic, sung choruses, Hollow deliver their songs with passion and vigour. This formula isn’t abused though, and there are plenty of examples of the band eschewing this approach and just focusing on the aggressive side of the spectrum.

Nice.

The songs clearly have the live environment in mind, but are well-written enough to work outside of this too. Melodies are used frequently to accentuate and enhance the main riffs. Alongside, and sometimes instead of, the main heavy riffs, the band also play around with some interesting ideas and atypical guitars, both of which add a lot to the appeal of the songs when they appear.

Yes, there’s some good stuff on this album. If you’re not sold on the more popular side of metalcore, then I doubt this will sway you. This is a shame, as Hollow do seem to know what they’re doing with the style more than most. I like that although there’s nothing wildly innovative here, (it wouldn’t be metalcore if it was), the band still manage to avoid most of the genre clichés and generic aspects of this kind of music, and even get creative with it in places. This is no small feat to be honest, and largely results from their obvious enthusiasm for the music, their confident delivery, and, ultimately, some good songwriting.

Some people, understandably so in some cases, tend to get put off by bands tagged as metalcore or modern metal. All I can suggest is that you judge every band on their own individual merits. As for Home Is Not Where the Heart Is, for me the album has a lot of merits to recommend itself, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to become one of my staple gym albums.

Heavy, enthusiastic, with good songs; what’s not to like? Check this out.